A familiar and bigger problem for all young bloggers is having no readers at all.
If you compare your new blog with that of any well-established website or a blog with huge follower base, then you would probably understand the situation and the fact that luring potential audiences is like scaling Mt. Everest.
Both are incredibly tough to do. You cannot really wave a magic wand and summon a load of audiences whose main job is to read your blog posts and increase your Google rankings.
For those bloggers who are suffering from the ‘no visitors or readers’ issue, here are my tips to attract and retain audiences like a pro.
Tips to Structure a Blog Post for Better Rankings:
1. Structure your blog post (along with tips to frame each section) and the introduction
Okay, here our main strategy is to hook your reader straightaway.
You need to show that you are a pro in blogging
You must convince your reader that your personal brand and signature is the best
Because if you do this right, your audiences will surely select your blog over others.
For this scenario to happen, you must write a compelling introduction that will hook your audiences. A compelling pre-introduction will attract people’s attention and will make them read your entire article.
Yes, you need a little bit of coaxing the readers to read your introductory parts.
Your posts are not typical essays. People only take few seconds to adjudge whether to read or skip your article.
You cannot demand your audiences to read your articles without any preamble.
But, what are the effective ways to frame your pre-introduction part?
- Include a few stats in your post (stats that are relevant to your article). Come on, everyone likes a few stats in their posts.
Much as they are boring to read, they can increase the authenticity of your article. Use a bulleted list to share your vital stats (if that’s possible).
- Share some personal stories related to your article: I don’t want you to include your own sob stories. We do not want our readers to sympathize with us.
Crisp personal stories are the ‘anchors’. They just make the audiences to get engrossed in your article.
- Present the situation in a relatable way: Yes, present your points in simple, lucid English.
Have some simple, personal connects (like everyday experiences, personal situations). These things can make the reader to effectively understand your points.
After following these strategies, frame your introductory post. Use a combination of methods to make your introduction.
Remember, capturing your audiences is our motto here. After reading your pre-introductions, your audience should not get bored in your introductory part. So, if possible, maintain a hilarious tone in your introductory part.
You can also afford to be a little sarcastic. But, do not be very caustic in your approach as it might offend your target people.
Decide what works for your audience and what does not. At the end of your introduction, kindly include some transition passages so that the flow of your article will not be affected.
2. Frame your body content:
By framing, I am not meaning that you should have giant blocks of passages in your contents.
Before posting your content, segregate it into the following sections
- Pre-introduction
- Introduction
- Body content
Subdivision 1
Subdivision 2
Subdivision 3
- Some logical reasoning
- Pre-conclusion
- Conclusion
This is how the main structure of your blog post should be. Of course, this is just a skeleton for deciding how your blog post must be. You can edit, delete or add some more sections to it.
But, always remember to maintain a neutral and engaging tone in your article.
Suppose, if you want to write ’10 Hacks to increase your SEO visibility’, do not write it as one massive blog post.
Instead, split the contents and write it under different by-lines or subtopics. Include the 10 hacks as 10 different subtopics and write them out.
In this way, your posts look very simplified and the audience can easily connect with your article.
3. Make the entire process a little less daunting:
If your blog posts are difficult to read, well, people won’t read them. It is as simple as that.
So, you should never make the audiences feel that your article is very tough to comprehend.
How about adding some nice infographics, stunning visuals, some GIFs and images? Sounds cheesy right?
No, it is not. Show your authenticity in these images. Make them as informative as you can. Your GIFs should reflect the current situation of your article.
Break your entire text with bulleted lists, numbered concepts, some white spaces, headings, subheadings, etc. These aspects will ensure that your audiences will enjoy your article.
Also, it is not enough if you deliver your information to your target audiences. How about spreading the content to your potential ‘can become’ audiences?
- Why not some ‘click to share’ buttons in your articles: Check some popular blogs and include ‘click to share’ buttons at the end of all your articles.
- Engaging social media pages: Share all your posts on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram feed. Include your links in the ‘bio’ section of your social media pages.
- Reach prospective blog readers: No, I don’t mean the cold calling process here. Reach out some popular blogs and do guest posts.
At least, comment in their ‘comment boxes’ and provide links to your articles at the end of your comments.
- Encourage word of mouth: Ask your readers to read and share your content with their colleagues, friends, etc. A little boost in your audiences can never disappoint you.
4. Figure out your ‘sister’ blog posts:
Yes, after posting your content, start figuring out your sister blogs. By ‘sister blogs’, I mean blogs that post contents on the same line such as yours.
You can probably get more information and ideas to write your next topics. Before doing an extensive Google search, ask yourself these questions
- Who are my favorite bloggers?
- Whose blogs have contents like mine?
- Why do people enjoy these blogs?
- What are their unique attractions?
- How many followers do they have on social media?
- How can I persuade them to do guest posts?
- What can I offer to them?
- What can I learn from these bloggers?
This is the approach you need to take if you want to expand your audience base.
While writing your articles, make sure that your articles are devoid of typos and other grammatical mistakes.
Spelling + correct usage of grammar + engaging tone = the most known winning formula.
If you see the posts of famous bloggers, then you can see that their posts ooze their authenticity.
Unique writing style, personal connection with the audiences and an affable tone make their posts teeming with readers.
And this is the strategy you need to take if you want to skyrocket your Google rankings and attract more audiences.
So, before figuring your sister blogs and reaching out to them, decide for yourself what you are going to write if they allow for a guest post.
Remember to include a short and sweet bio at the end of your guest post so that readers can click the bio and start reading your blog too.
You don’t need to be a perfectionist if you want to attain these factors. All you need is to take care of your writing and polish them frequently to attract your readers.
Pitch in some interesting ideas to some famous bloggers and develop a draft of what you are intending to write.
Send them to the bloggers and get a green signal from them. Then expand your ideas, write them in a simplified manner and allow the bloggers to publish your guest posts.
Suppose, if you are not allowed to make guest posts do not feel disheartened. Become a follower of the targeted blogs and start leaving comments.
In these comments, include a link to your article. You can see your target audiences getting expanded slowly but steadily.
5. Always think of the ‘Big Picture’ when you write:
Always think about the big picture before beginning your article.
Make sure that your articles are created with some marketing perspective. After all, your primary need is to increase your Google visibility by increasing your audiences.
Words that have no strategy in them will always sound unclear when you post them. So, make sure that you have a target to meet with the help of these words.
One of the aspects that should always be in your big picture is to expand your audiences. So, visit forums like Quora, Reddit, Answer.com, etc. and help other people. Post engaging answers to their questions and link your article with these answers.
Interactive comments can also help you in winning the minds of your audiences.
Suppose if you want to review a book and if you write about some of the strategies that a writer can use while penning texts while reviewing the book, your article will make no sense. So, you have to be clear about the structure of your post before writing it.
How about using tools like Canva to come up with interactive pictures, infographics, etc?
Yes, much as your texts are the pillars of your blogs, even adding some visually pleasing graphics can perform the trick.
Any person can easily understand an infographic or a concept map rather than assimilating huge blocks of texts.
At all costs, avoid plagiarism. Do not copy the ideas, texts, and posts of other bloggers.
Your readers can easily find it out and this will surely damage your credibility. Also, if the concerned owner of the posts finds it out, you may even need to face some legal repercussions.
For extra effectiveness of your article, create a compelling graphics and post it in your blog posts multiple times to meet the desired effect.
You do not need to be a graphic designer to achieve this. There are a lot of free tools available in the online market that will aid you to complete your quest.
Do a quick Google search to find out the kind of tools you need to create an infographic and create one quickly.
6. Some more ideas to improve your blog contents:
Inject some personal style in the graphics that you do. If possible hyperlink the graphic with another of your blog posts. In this way, you can even provide internal links with your graphics.
Maintain a conversational tone in all your contents. Encourage your audiences to post comments and understand their views.
Even if some of your audiences post sarcastic comments, do not let your anger come in your way. Politely reply to them and make them understand your point of view.
Comment-encouraging questions at the end of your articles will always kindle your readers to post their views.
You can even conduct some brainstorming sessions with your readers to make them help you in picking up your next topic of discussion.
Yes, I agree. These aspects take a lot of time to fetch results. But, they will always provide you some positive growth. You should always allow people to respond to your posts. Merely reading your posts will never help you.
7. Nailing your blog structure:
Okay, you need to make your blog worthwhile to read.
You need to attract and lure audiences.
You need to develop your blog from ‘no visitors’ to ‘multiple visitors’ stage.
What can you do finally that can surely guarantee you a digital success?
The answer is simple. You have to nail your blog structure. Your blog posts should drive positive business results.
Understand kinds of stuff like SEO, Google rankings, topic selection, White-hat SEO techniques, writing voices, etc. These issues can help you to redefine your blog structure and give you more visibility.
So, that makes me reach the end of this article. Market the life out of your posts and SUCCEED in it. It takes a hell lot of aspects other than grammar and accuracy to make your audiences notice your posts.
You can afford to learn through trial and error. So, follow these steps and increase your audience base.